We’re going to be at The Southern (22-26 South Clerk Street, Edinburgh EH8 9PR) on Friday the 20th of February from 8pm, so come along and bring your sketchbooks! We’ve got some great drawing games planned, but as ever feel free to come along and work on your own stuff too.

Stref’, aka Stephen White is an edinburgh based illustrator and comic artist. His first graphic novel ‘MILK+‘ was published in 2011 with his second book ‘Raising Amy‘ following hot on its heels at the end of the year. To continue our investigations into the workings of local creators, we sent over some questions for Stref’ to answer…
For up to date info and an interesting insight into his artistic process please check out Stref’s blog.

What are you working on?

I have just finished drawing my latest graphic novel, ” X ” and have just had my first cartoon humour book published, ” RAISING AMY”.

Your graphic novel ‘MILK+’ used a variety of styles and settings, how important is it to your creative process that you be able to use a wide range of approaches?

I like to approach each project with a style that I feel best suits it. I work on a wide variety of scripts and they demand very different visuals to work properly as individual projects. Changing styles also constantly challenges me, but I realise that I have no distinguishable look to the body of my work…which could either be seen as a good or a bad thing!

You write, draw, ink, colour and letter your work- is this through necessity or do you like it that way?

It’s a bit of both…I couldn’t afford to pay someone to colour or letter for me…also I am a bit of a control freak when it comes to that stuff!

Is there any difficult stigma you have to put up with trying to make thoughtful comics in the science fiction genre?

I don’t think about that stuff…ideas come to me and I scribble them down regardless of whether people want to look at them or not…like cleaning the cobwebs out of your brain. I switch styles as much as I switch genres-always trying to be thoughtful and funny-though not always succeeding!

Magda Boreysza is a comic artist, animator and illustrator. She divides her time between Edinburgh, Sweden and New Orleans. Magda’s comic series ‘Toastycats’ is soon to reach its sixth issue, for more info check out Magda’s blog and website.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m putting together the 6th issue of Toastycats, which will have more pages and more colour than previous ones. I’m also developing ideas for graphic novels. I’m generating a lot of ideas in general, and trying to organize myself so as to actually get those projects done.

Some people feel that the word ‘comics’ comes with some unfortunate stigma they would rather be without and prefer terms such as ‘sequential art’ or narrative ‘illustration’- where do you stand on that debate?

I’m often hesitant to use the word ‘comic’ when I describe what I do to people who have little contact with the form. But I’m equally uncomfortable with ‘sequential art’ or ‘narrative illustration’. Those are incredibly dry terms and make comics sound like a total drag. So I do say comics. It’s short and it has a good ring to it. We need to use the word until it looses its association with comedy and funny papers.

Do you have a specific grand plan in mind for Toastycats or do you just work on it as and when it seems appropriate?

It’s certainly something that I plan to continue for a long time, and I would like to publish it more consistently than I do now. I think that it improves with each issue. When I first started, there was no plan at all. I didn’t think that there would be more than one issue. Then I made another one, and another… with each, I’m getting a better idea of what I want to do. There’s been a lot of experimentation, and some things worked while some didn’t. I think that I painted myself into a corner, somewhat, with The Seed, because it just keeps expanding and I feel like I need to continue it in each issue, when I would actually much prefer to have all the issues be self-contained. So, I’m contemplating whether I should remove The Seed and just publish it separately as a graphic novel.

I also try to improve the print quality. I think that I’ve hit a point at which it makes more sense to have Toastycats printed lithographically, which has given the whole endeavour a real boost. At some point I might start experimenting with the form a little more. We’ll see.

What was the last comic you read and what did you think of it?

I recently read ‘Laika’ by Nick Abadzis. It’s such a well crafted story, and very moving. I was floored.